php-regexHow to use PHP regex to match a non-word?

Using PHP regex to match a non-word is possible with the \W character class. This character class matches any non-word character, which includes any character that is not a letter, number, or underscore.

Example code

$string = 'This is a string!';
$pattern = '/\W/';

preg_match_all($pattern, $string, $matches);

print_r($matches);

Output example

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] =>
            [1] =>
            [2] => !
        )

)

Code explanation

• $string: This is the string that we are searching through.
• $pattern: This is the regular expression pattern that we are using to search for non-word characters.
• preg_match_all(): This is the PHP function that we are using to search for matches in the string.
• $matches: This is the array that will contain all of the matches that are found.
• print_r(): This is the PHP function that we are using to print out the contents of the $matches array.

Helpful links

• PHP Regular Expression Functions
• PHP preg_match_all() Function

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